A teenage “recluse” who lives with his mother in Essex was being questioned by police last night on suspicion of masterminding an international computer hacking group. Ryan Cleary, the 19-year-old son of a college lecturer, is accused of being a “major player” in LulzSec, which has been linked with attacks on computers belonging to the police, the US Senate and the CIA.

He was held in a raid at his family home in Wickford following a joint investigation between Scotland Yard and the FBI, which was also aimed at finding the hackers who breached security at the games firms Sony and Nintendo.

It was alleged last night that Mr Cleary was online in the middle of hacking when he was held. The arrest came hours after an anonymous internet user claiming to be from LulzSec threatened to publish the entire 2011 census database, though this was later dismissed as a hoax. A Scotland Yard spokesman said a “significant amount of material” had been seized from Mr Cleary’s family home by officers from its specialist e-crime unit, and would now be subjected to forensic examination.

Mr Cleary’s family expressed disbelief that the self-confessed computer “nerd” had anything to do with hacking.Telegraph.co.uk